Chopin, Frederic

Fine autograph letter signed ('Ch."), 3 pages (7 3/4 x 5 in.; 198 x 126 mm), on George Sand's embossed stationery, in Polish with  a few words in French, [Nohant], 4 October [1839] to Julian Fontana, a Polish musician and lifelong friend, regarding an apartment; integral address leaf with seal remnant; half green morocco folding case with morocco gilt spine label

Opienski, Henryk and E. L. Voynich (eds.). Chopin's Letters, letter 121.

A true find? Chopin expresses incredulous joy over his correspondent's discovery of an apartment: "You are a priceless creature. The apartment sounds splendid; only why is it so cheap? isn't there some very unpleasant but? I beg you for God's sake, don't lose time; go to M. Mardelle . . . but at once; find out from him whether he has perhaps found something still better; if not take him with you (he knows about you), go together, take [Wojciech] Grzymala too if you can and clinch it." Chopin proceeds to comment on the list of amenities he had provided Fontana at the onset of the apartment hunt: "It is essential that it should not face north; weigh les conditions that I gave you in my last letter. If the apartment has la majorité, take it.' Still expressing disbelief about Fontana's find, Chopin asks: "Once more, is it all right, does it not smell bad, or is it not dirty, or are there not so many neighbours that you can't go to the privy alone? Is there not a cornet à piston in the house or some such thing?"

Chopin closes his letter with a request for a floor plan of the apartment in question. He also remarks that if Fontana decides to take the apartment, he should arrange a contract for one year or three years.